AEC/PRV Routemaster - CUV240C - Charles Wells Ltd. Bombardier:
oiltreader:
Legless on the Guinnessall credit to Ian Southwell for the photo.
Oily
Some weight on the trailer front tyre!
colinwallace1:
oiltreader:
Legless on the Guinness
OilySome weight on the trailer front tyre!
When I used to pull those sized tanks from the Carlsberg brewery, they were a very heavy concentrated dead weight. In fact, the Axor units were specc’d without air conditioning, with undersized air tanks, and without mattresses to save just a few kilos. They were still so close to 44,000kg. In fact, one night, we had to swap driver’s on the weighbridge because the original driver put the readout to 44,040kg, and with me it read 43,980kg. We had a good laugh at that.
They were very interesting to drive if they were not literally full to the brim as they were unbaffled.
ezydriver:
colinwallace1:
oiltreader:
Legless on the Guinness
OilySome weight on the trailer front tyre!
When I used to pull those sized tanks from the Carlsberg brewery, they were a very heavy concentrated dead weight. In fact, the Axor units were specc’d without air conditioning, with undersized air tanks, and without mattresses to save just a few kilos. They were still so close to 44,000kg. In fact, one night, we had to swap driver’s on the weighbridge because the original driver put the readout to 44,040kg, and with me it read 43,980kg. We had a good laugh at that.
They were very interesting to drive if they were not literally full to the brim as they were unbaffled.
No baffles ? 
in a tank that size
I think ‘interesting to drive’ could be classed as a bit of an understatement.
Imagine getting pulled by the Ministry men and weighing each axle with 30 ton of Guinness swilling about.
grumpy old man:
ezydriver:
colinwallace1:
oiltreader:
Legless on the Guinness
OilySome weight on the trailer front tyre!
When I used to pull those sized tanks from the Carlsberg brewery, they were a very heavy concentrated dead weight. In fact, the Axor units were specc’d without air conditioning, with undersized air tanks, and without mattresses to save just a few kilos. They were still so close to 44,000kg. In fact, one night, we had to swap driver’s on the weighbridge because the original driver put the readout to 44,040kg, and with me it read 43,980kg. We had a good laugh at that.
They were very interesting to drive if they were not literally full to the brim as they were unbaffled.
No baffles ?
I think ‘interesting to drive’ could be classed as a bit of an understatement.
Imagine getting pulled by the Ministry men and weighing each axle with 30 ton of Guinness swilling about.
Yes, very occasionally half empty ones would need dragging back after Glastonbury, and though I never heard of any driver refusing, there were numerous complaints from experienced drivers with 20+ years employment there.
I remember driving one which had a little leak, so lost only a few gallons of beer, and there was a small but noticeable difference.
99.9% of tanker journeys were full-to-the-brim deliveries into other breweries, especially Marstons in Wolverhampton. The whole lot would be discharged, and the tank ran back empty.
A label that I removed from a bottle of wine that we consumed last weekend.
It was £3.95 from Lidl. Big spender eh ? 
. A flatbed lorry carrying wooden
tubs of grapes from the vineyard to the winery in the Mendoza Valley in Argentina.
I will keep my eyes peeled for this bottle(s) next time I am in Lidl. 
Cheers, Ray.
IVECO - FP67YYH - K&N Drinks Logistics:
and, a couple of buses with (low alcohol) beer adverts for Swan Light:
Leyland Atlantean with Northern Counties bodywork - GDB172N:
Bee Line, Manchester. This had been new to Greater
Manchester PTE and came back to Manchester from London Country.
Leyland Atlantean with Park Royal Vehicles bodywork - SCD730N:
Bee Line, Manchester, but had been new to Southdown.
All credit to Steve W for the photo.
Oily
Ray Smyth:
This is Norfolk Street in Liverpool in 1985, to the left of the picture is Guinness Export Bottlers.
The artic unit looks a bit like an ERF, and judging by the number plate, it may be a Suttons of
St Helens lorry. Straight ahead is Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. Ray Smyth.
It is a Suttons B Series. The fleet number is on the rear nearside corner of the cab (it is a lot clearer on the picture as it’s viewed on the Liverpool Echo archive website). I was a cab-happy little lad the last time I went there with my Dad around 1970/71.
oiltreader:
Legless on the Guinness
Oily
This pic reminds me of an “incident” we had in the mid 80’s. We (BRS) had the contract to deliver most of the Guinness in Scotland both in tankers and barrels. We had a specially made tri-axle trailer that could take approx 300 barrels having taken advantage of the recent increase in weight limits to 38t.
Scotland were playing Ireland at rugby and Guinness decided to have a “beer tent” in a large park area of Edinburgh called “The Meadows”. The tent was located in the middle of the park well away from the road. We delivered a full trailer of the stuff the day before the game and were due to collect it again on the Saturday evening. On the Friday and Saturday the rain poured down heavily and the beer tent was poorly attended with a large number of barrels being unused. We sent the tractor unit along to pick up the trailer not knowing that it was still heavily laden. Tractor unit hooks up and tries to move but gets stuck. The driver calls BRS Rescue who arrange for a tow-truck to come out and recover the unit and trailer onto a piece of hard ground. For some unknown reason the driver of the tow truck (an 8 wheeled F86) drove onto the grassed area, hooked up, and proceeded to winch the unit and trailer. Yes, you know what happened next - he too got stuck. I was called at home and made aware of the situation so made my way from Glasgow to Edinburgh to oversee the debacle that was unfolding. The rain was incessant and by the time I got there the ground was completely sodden.
Another tow-truck was sent out by which time I had arrived and could watch the “comedy show” live. Tow-truck no 2 reversed onto the grassed area and hooked up to tow-truck no 1. Naturally he too got stuck. Much scratching of heads was in force and I eventually persuaded the recovery company to send a third unit which we could keep on the road and by using his towing wire we could slowly draw tow-truck no 2 forward for a short distance and then he could do the same to tow-truck no 1. 6 hours later we had managed to pull all the vehicles out and the situation was resolved. I never found what the cost of the whole operation cost as the bill was picked up by Guinness but it would have been substantial.
Interesting photo I came across in a Railway mag, Guinness Tanker Trailers on rail flats from Park Lane passing through Newcastle Station in April 1965, I’m not one of those kids in the pic but I would have been around their age then, kids near railways isn’t such a common sight today as back then. The photo caption mentions most alcohol traffic moved by rail travelled inconspicuously but Guinness openly used these branded road tankers travelling on six wheel flat wagons, which are well fastened down. Franky.
The barrels of Guinness that we got all came from Park Royal and were delivered by train to us in Glasgow. The Guinness that we delivered by tanker to a bottler in Glasgow all came by ship directly from Dublin and was then transferred into the road tankers. I can’t remember accurately but I’m sure that the ship docked in Runcorn.
